According to the National Association of Holistic Aromatherapy (NAHA), aromatherapy is "the art and science of utilizing naturally extracted aromatic essences from plants to balance, harmonize and promote the health of body, mind and spirit. It seeks to unify physiological, psychological and spiritual processes to enhance an individual’s innate healing process." Specifically, aromatherapy utilizes the natural essential oils extracted from the flowers, bark, roots, and leaves of plants to improve and enhance mental and physical wellbeing. The use of plant essences and essential oils can be traced back thousands of years to Greece, Egypt and China. The Egyptians, for example, actually developed one of the first distillation machines to extract oils from certain plants for the purpose of embalming. Cedarwood, cinnamon and clove, as well as resins such as myrrh were used in the embalming process. The Greeks believed the Gods possessed knowledge of fragrance and perfume. Hippocrates, who is considered the "Father of Medicine," is credited with using aromatherapy for healing purposes, while the Greek perfumer Megallus, created a fragrance from myrrh he coined "Megaleion." It was the Chinese, however, who are believed to have utilized aromatic oils for the purpose of enhancing mood. While people have used natural plant extracts in the healing arts and perfumery for thousands of years, the actual term "aromatherapy" was not used until 1937 when French perfumer and chemist Rene-Maurice Gattefosse published a book titled "Gattefosse’s Aromatherapy." Gattefosse was motivated to write the book after he was burned and realized the application of lavender essential oil actually helped to heal his burn wound. Catching wind of Gattefosse's discovery, the French surgeon Jean Valnet used essential oils to help heal soldiers' wounds in World War II, proving the medical benefits of aromatherapy. "His book “Gattefosse’s Aromatherapy” contains early clinical findings for utilizing essential oils for a range of physiological ailments. It seems vital to understand what Gattefosse’s intention for coining the word was, as he clearly meant to distinguish the medicinal application of essential oils from their perfumery applications. Essential oils are utilized in Creole Moon's products and my Voodoo Mama's brand for both aromatherapeutic as well as perfumery applications. References About Aromatherapy https://www.naha.org/explore-aromatherapy/about-aromatherapy The History of Aromatherapy http://www.aromatherapy.com/history.html
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The most common colors associated with St. Expedite are red and yellow. Red for expediency and yellow for success. Sometimes a brave soul will venture into the color green for money. I applaud the brave souls who depart from the norm, because you, my friend, are on the right track.
In the Hyatt texts, St. Expedite is referenced by an informant as as the Saint of Many Colors. She calls him this based on the fact that his clothing is very colorful. In fact, this color association between saints and their clothing and the color of candle used is observed with other saints, as well. For example, St. Anthony wears a brown robe so his candle color is brown. St. Jude wears a green robe, so his candle color is green. If you are ever in doubt about what color candle to use with a particular saint, look at their iconography and observe the color of the clothing they are wearing. Use the predominant color as the primary color. Of course, a white candle can always be used with any saint whenever petitioning them for any purpose. The name of the conjure doctor who shared the information about using many different candle colors with St Espidee was called “Nahnee.” Nahnee was from Algiers, Louisiana and called herself the “Boss of Algiers.” She basically stated that a petition begins with a red candle on the first day, which is allowed to burn down. Then, a green candle is lit the next day and allowed to burn down. The following day, a yellow candle is lit and allowed to burn down. A different color candle is burned every day for nine days to petition St Espidee, the Saint of Many Colors. Note that she refers to candles as “lights.” Now, yo' take—St Espidee is a saint of many colors, see. Now, today yo'll burn a red light, tomorrah yo'll burn a green light, tomorrah a yellah light. He wus a young Italian man an' he wus a saint of many colors. (How do you mean a saint of many colors?) A saint of many colors—dat chew have tuh use all colors tuh him—all colors—use a red light, a green light, a brown light—yo' use diff 'rent lights, yo' see, each day . (What do you mean that he is a saint of many colors?) [I repeat my question and get a logical answer.] Dat mean he wo' many colors in his garments—many colors on his garments. Dat why yo' use many diff'rent lights—red, yellah, green, blue. Each day he gits a diff'rent color light fo' nine days. An' each time yo' light a light in front of dat lamp, yo' ring dat bell an' yo' make dat wish, an' dat party will wander off an' yo' won't know whut become of 'em. (Nahnee, “The Boss of Algiers” Algiers, La., Vol. 2, p. 1373). Although Nahnee doesn’t go into any details about the lamp she is referring to, in New Orleans Voudou and Haitian Vodou, it is common practice to light a candle in front of an oil lamp (charm lamp, magick lamp) in order to activate it. Most rootworkers today will only use the candle itself or the lamp itself, but not both in combination. This practice is but one of several that can be found as a Voudou practice but never identified as such in the Hyatt texts. To see how this idea can be applied to working with a charm lamp, see the Magick Lamp to Get a Job on page 103 in my book, The Conjurer's Guide to St. Expedite. Another departure from the usual red candle color is shared by the informant Hyatt calls a Woman and her Three Saints from New Orleans. She describes using pink and blue candles with St. Expedite for love. She explains that blue candles are for truth and pink is for love, so burning a blue and a pink candle together will bring true love. I love this use of the two candle colors towards a specific goal. You burn a pink candle and a blue candle to St. Expedite. That's for love, true love, and for what you want—in asking him for money and things, for true things, for him to do truthful for you. You burn blue or pink to him. (New Orleans, La. [872], Vol. 2 p. 1406).
Krampus, best known as St. Nicholas' sidekick shadow, is a frightening looking beast who would scare the living daylights out of anyone who may have the unfortunate experience of coming into direct contact with him. That is exactly what he aims to do - scare naughty kids into playing nice - because bad behavior has bad consequences when you get on Krampus' naughty list.
Do a search on Google for Krampus and all sorts of stuff comes up. The same thing happens on YouTube, not surprisingly. Well, after doing some research and getting the Gumbo Ya Ya 2015 Special Holiday Krampus-Santa Edition together, and after going to see the new Krampus movie, I wanted to see what kinds of videos were available. I have posted a few I found entertaining below for your viewing pleasure. The first video below is from an actual Krampus walk (Krampuslauf) in Austria, where the tradition is apparently experiencing a resurgence in popularity. In fact there are a lot of such videos of varying quality on YouTube; this one is in HD. Krampus (HD) by Martin Hájek
Published on Jan 6, 2013
Krampus - real Hell in the Central Europe - Austria The Legend of Krampus
Published on Nov 24, 2015
Krampus, In Theaters December 4 - krampusthefilm.com "Krampus" (1958) - Lost Christmas Horror Flick
Published on Dec 21, 2014
Seasons grievings! Check out the ghastly holiday-horror spectacular, "Krampus" - based on the terrifying tales of Germanic folklore! Naughty? Nice? Either way, yule be terrified. In Bavaria, Krampus Catches the Naughty
A centuries-old Christmas tradition called the Krampus Run returns to Bavaria where monsters roam the streets in search of bad children.
Produced by: Erik Olsen A Krampus Carol by Anthony Bourdain
Uploaded on Dec 7, 2011
Krampus is Santa Claus' whip-toting Christmas sidekick. According to legend, Krampus joins Santa where he tends to the children on Santa's naughty list. No coal here though. Instead, Krampus whips and licks children into shape or carries them off in his sack. Krampus, the Anti-Klaus | Op-Docs | The New York Times
Published on Dec 24, 2013
Santa has gone too soft on kids, argues this animated Op-Doc, prompting the need for more frightening Christmas-season icons - like the German Krampus or Japanese Namahage.
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